Forty-six city workers joined the ranks of the $100,000 club in 2015, raising its membership to 189, according to a recent city report of its top earners made under Ontario's Public Sector Disclosure Act.

More than one-third of the city's workforce – including Sarnia police officers – now make at least $100,000, Mitro pointed out during Monday's council meeting.

“Around our community, there are many people who $100,000 per annum will never be attainable,” he said. “They struggle on much less and in their life span or their careers, they've actually moved backwards...”

Of the 46 new names on the city's sunshine list, 24 of those are Sarnia fire officers and 19 of those are Sarnia police officers.

“Most of the people on that list have simply progressed through their ranks and that's why they've moved forward,” Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said Monday. “The list when it was brought forward should have been subject to inflation because it's not, so it's a snapshot in time.”

City council reviewed several city remuneration and expense reports during an at times tense meeting Monday night.

Mitro said he decided to raise his concerns over the sunshine list Monday because he wanted to “message” to city staff ahead of the city's upcoming contract negotiations with the majority of its workforce.

“Our senior staff and bargainers on the various contracts would take this to heart, I would hope, and look at the growth of the expenditure in our city,” Mitro said.

Four of the city's five worker unions – excluding transit – are due for contract negotiations at the end of this year, but Sarnia police contract negotiations could begin sooner than that.

Bradley called on Mitro to bring forward a motion to address his concerns of all the “rhetoric.”

“If there's an issue that he believes needs to be dealt with on that sunshine list, then bring a motion and be held accountable for that motion,” he said after Monday's meeting.

City council also had a tense debate over its own annual budget, which covers off salaries, travel expenses, municipal souvenirs, newspaper subscriptions and flower arrangements, to name a few categories.

City staff presented a report Monday outlining the last three years of council expenses.

City Coun. Cindy Scholten called for a semi-annual review of council's own budget line-by-line because she found some expenses that were “not appropriate” for today's times, like hard copy rather than online newspaper subscriptions.

“I'd like to start doing that and have a better understanding of this budget because perhaps if we had a better understanding, when we talk about things like new memberships for the betterment of council and our education, we'd know we have areas to take out for this,” she said.

Bradley described the motion as “micromanaging the mayor's office” – a point Scholten refuted – because council's budget is already approved every year as part of the broader city budget negotiations.

“If you take a look at the mayor's office compared to other mayor's offices of similar-sized cities, you will see we're very, very modest,” he said following Monday's meeting. “I have one more full-time staff person. Andy Brandt – back in 1972 – had one full-time staff person, and yet the demands on the office are huge, so we've been very modest in our spending over the years.”

Councillors should also examine their attendance at various conferences as part of the council budget discussion, noted Coun. Mike Kelch noted.

“Right now we have a scenario where if a councillor believes they can add value by going to Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) or the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) [conferences], they can pretty much do that, and if we go down that road, we could look at maybe that's not a smart thing to do,” he said.

While Coun. Bev MacDougall said council should review its budget in the “spirit of modernizing its spending,” she said she wasn't interested in targeting any fellow council member's expenses.

“I don't want this to be personal in any way, shape or form. I don't want to start playing God over who goes to conferences or not.”

City councillors receive $19,236.66 as their base remuneration, but they can also receive additional earnings if they serve as city appointees on boards. As well, they can claim travel and conference expenses, as well as the cost of an electronic device:

Dave Boushy: $80 for travel and conference expenses;

Andy Bruziewicz: $837.45 for travel and conference expenses, and $450 per diem for serving on the St. Clair Conservation Authority board;

Anne Marie Gillis: $2,397.59 for travel and conference expenses;

Mike Kelch: $700 for an electronic device and $300 per diem for serving on the St. Clair Conservation Authority board;

Matt Mitro: $1,664.64 for serving on Sarnia Police Service Board and $700 for an electronic device;

Cindy Scholten: $525 per diem for serving on the St. Clair Conservation Authority board, and $257.40 for travel and conference expenses;

Brian White: $852.34 for travel and conference expenses, and $667.83 for an electronic device.

* Coun. Bev MacDougall didn't file any expenses or claim any additional income through serving as a city appointee on a board in 2015.